The Stunning Collapse Of Iran’s Currency

In a recent two-part series on the tensions between the United States and Iran, my colleague David Lee Smith provided readers with a broad and insightful overview of the unfolding crisis. He discussed the European Union’s newly implemented embargo against Iranian oil, the contentious relationship between Shiite Iran and its Sunni neighbors, and the growing divide between the leadership of Iran and that of Turkey, among other things.

Despite this comprehensiveness, aspects of the crisis remain muddled in anonymity. And one of these aspects involves the recent and sudden collapse of Iran’s currency, the rial. While David paid homage to the issue in the first article of his series, I’ve decided to expand on it here by discussing why it collapsed, and the implications of its doing so.